Mr. Gresham Cookeasked the Secretary of State for Air, in view of the decision to purchase for the Meteorological Office a computer costing about £400,000, what progress has been made in the application of advanced computing methods to the forecasting of weather.
§ Mr. H. FraserFor a number of years the Meteorological Office has been studying ways of forecasting the weather by purely mathematical methods. Experiments using a high speed computer have now reached the stage where computed forecasts of the field of atmospheric pressure for up to 24 hours ahead are as good as, and in many instances better than, those produced by experienced forecasters. The more powerful computer now to be purchased will make it possible to develop these methods and use them in routine short range forecasting.186W This should lead to improvements in the forecasts published by the Meteorological Office, though it will be a gradual process.